Last week, John Ring, a management-side labor attorney, was confirmed by the Senate as a member of the National Labor Relations Board. This fills the last Board vacancy, giving the Republicans a 3-2 majority with a full board of five members. The Republican Board is now expected to fun the field overruling and reversing Obama-era decisions, and creating a more pro-business labor relations environment.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg Law reports that the OMB has told the Board not to spend all of the money appropriated to it because the President wants to claw back some of the money. This apparently follows General Counsel Peter Robb's plans to shrink the number of Regional Offices, and strip the Regional Directors of some of their authority. Robb has warned of looming cuts since January.

The claw=back budget cuts are sought through the little used budget rescission process, which allows the President to freeze funds for up to 45 days. The President must release the money at the end of that time if Congress does not agree to rescind the funds. The Department of Labor is also reportedly facing a claw-back of funds.

COVENANT NOT TO COMPETE QUIZ

Many businesses have turned to covenants not to compete to protect their "competitive edge."However drafting these covenants can be a daunting task. Yet if done carefully a company can have a courtprotect its' valuable "know-how" from slipping away to its competitors.

A couple of years ago we set out a quiz on this topic to highlight some of the important issues, and potential pitfalls in drafting these important covenants. We are featuring this quiz again because today's tight labor market is increasing the focus on these means to protect your competitive edge:

1. Th
e drafter of the covenant can choose which state's law to apply to the agreement and this choice will be honored so long as the state chosen is the state the drafter resides in.

2. It is permissible for a company to terminate an employee for refusing to sign a covenant not to compete.

3. If you decide to have an incumbent employee sign a covenant not to compete, it is not necessary to give that employee additional consideration for his or her execution of the agreement.

4. It is permissible to refuse to hire an individual because he or she has signed a covenant not to compete with another employer.

5.
It is permissible to refuse to hire an individual because he or she refuses to sign a covenant not to compete that has previously been enforced against other employees.

6. It is permissible to have all of your employees sign a covenant not to compete.

7. Some states, most notably California, are extremely favorable to the enforcement of covenants not to compete.

8.
Sometimes it is advisable to "race to the courthouse" in one state as opposed to another to secure an injunction enforcing a covenant against an employee who has left your company.

9. If you do not have a covenant not to compete agreed to and executed by an employee who leaves your company and takes trade secrets with him or her, you are left without a remedy.

10. In order for a covenant to compete to be enforceable the employee against whom it is to be enforced must be deemed to have possessed a "protectable interest".

We will feature the answers to these questions in next week's MMM.

THE CONTINUED GROWTH OF PAID SICK LEAVE

Dallas:

Dallas may soon be joining the paid sick leave movement, if a coalition of labor and other groups have their say. This coalition in Dallas has filed paperwork with the City to collect signatures for a paid sick time ballot measure aimed at private employers. The group has until June 11 to collect signatures from 64,682 registered voters for inclusion of such initiative on November's ballot.

New Jersey:

The New Jersey legislature passed a law that is expected to be signed by the governor requiring all employers of any size to provide 40 hours of paid sick leave. It would also preempt local ordinances in an effort to unify state requirements.

These paid sick leave laws and initiatives join the movement for 2018 which saw paid sick leave required for employers in [the state of] Washington, Baltimore and Seattle early 2018.

PSB CONSULTING IS HERE TO HELP!

Small projects? Big projects? Transitional needs while you hire your next your Human Resources person? Or perhaps you are a smaller company that needs only a part time dedicated person to assist you in HR!

Contact PSB Consulting to see how we can help. We work on a project basis or as an extension of your team.

PAUTSCH, SPOGNARDI & BAIOCCHI LEGAL GROUP is a law firm dedicated to finding common sense, affordable solutions for businesses to labor, employment, human resource and general business needs. With over 75 combined years of experience among its 3 founding partners in these areas, we can assist businesses in developing custom solutions to today's tough issues. And as litigators, who combined have over thousands of trials "under their belts" before state and federal courts as well as administrative agencies (such as the NLRB) you will find no better advocate and partner.